Corruption is a universal trend, conceived under the notion that a person wielding power gets all, at any cost. The vice having infested all societal institutions leaves the less privileged to become more miserable.Students in the country’s tertiary institutions have handed down tales to generations about extortionists posing as lecturers and nothing more.

The Guardian has captured some of the ordeals, which have been narrated bit by bit by those who lived to tell their stories. A student of Rufus Giwa Polytechnic (RUGIPO), Owo, Ondo State, Olajide Olawunmi, revealed that in their school, the lecturers always use the statement “not compulsory but necessary,” to indirectly compel them to participate in whatever they assigned class representatives to do.

“Sometimes they ask to pay between N500 to N1000 for a photocopied research work or assignment. When we eventually get the copy, we discover that it is never up to the paid amount. And then, in a case where we are 200 students, they get roughly N100,000 to 200,000 thousand naira,” he said.

Echoing Ojo’s views, another student from Ekiti State University (EKSU), who identified herself as Esther, said: “Most of our lecturers are fond of such act. They walk into the class, announce that we should pay for our handouts to the class representative and then tell the class representative to put down the names of the students. The lecturer is just indirectly saying that if you do not pay, you fail.”

Some other students have moved beyond handouts and have complained about lecturers confidently asking for bribes in exchange for grades.
A student from the University of Benin (UNIBEN), who pleaded anonymity, said, “Our French lecturer who knows that none of his students knows or understands the course, made us sit in a horrendous pattern of one person per bench during his examination and after the exam, he would ask us to pay N5000, if we want to pass the course. This is a class of 130 students.”

Ukamaka Ude, a student from the University of Nigeria (UNN), confirmed that indeed lecturers do ask for tokens in exchange for grades.“I had a carryover in one of my courses because the lecturer had not included my continuous assessment score to my final result. I went ahead to meet him alongside other students with similar issues. He asked us to buy his textbook, review the given chapters and then submit it with a sum of N5000. We had no choice. We needed the grades,” she said.

Also another undergraduate from Kwara State Polytechnic (KP) revealed that not only do they take bribes for grades; they also take undue advantage of student caught in the act of examination malpractice. “ They asked for bribes from students caught cheating in other not to be reported or have their papers cancelled. Some of our lecturers swiftly turn such incidents to a great business opportunity,” he said.

Proposing possible means of curbing the menace in schools, the students unanimously suggested that if the school authorities could set up effective and incorruptible disciplinary unit that would regularly check and scrutinise the excesses of these lecturers, it would go a long way in reducing the rate of corruption amongst lecturers.